COLIN BALZER

The gifted young Canadian lyric tenor Colin Balzer is fast becoming one of the most sought-after concert soloists of his generation, with a busy schedule of international engagements. Now based in Germany and with a repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Penderecki, he has enjoyed critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, working with such conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Yoav Talmi, Gabriel Chmura and Christof Perick, performing with the Hungarian and Polish National Radio Orchestras, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Oregon, Vancouver and Québec Symphonies, among many others. Particularly esteemed as a recitalist, he has been welcomed at London's Wigmore Hall (accompanied by Graham Johnson), the Britten Festival in Aldeburgh, Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Recordings to date include Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch and Eisler and Henze song anthologies. A prizewinner of Holland's 's-Hertogenbosch Competition, the London Wigmore Hall Song Competition, and Stuttgart Hugo Wolf Competition, he holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal at the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years. Master-classes have been with such artists as Philip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Elly Ameling, Brigitte Fassbaender, Rudolph Jansen, and Christoph Prégardien. Born in British Columbia, he received his formal musical training at the University of British Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg / Augsburg with Edith Wiens.